Simcloth

[Tara51]

Hello everyone,

 

I haven't been on this animation:master software as membership for last couple years ago. The last time i used this Hash3D, version 16.0. Now, I'm back. I was trying to make a movie that do magic way of this tablecloth itself flowing toward this old fashion round table. While I was working on Simcloth. I noticed there are two ways of doing simcloth? Not same way as it was in version 16.0. I noticed that every times i clicked on "cloth wizard" on group box and the yellow box disappeared and appeared at different location ( mostly on ground). After I tried to make adjustment to make this cloth to become smoothy flow but somehow it just went crazy, un-natural way, flipping around.. Is this normal way or is it on glitches or bugs? Can someone tell me how to use simcloth for this version 18? Because I noticed there are some new inputs for simcloth program. Have anyone tryout on simcloth? I had no problem with version 16.0. But this one seems acted awkward. I did follow old directions that I had last couple years ago. Dang those two new inputs.... "dress me and simcloth" I understand the differances between these two. Mostly times this one crashed on me. (simcloth).

 

 

Holly

[robcat2075]

"Cloth wizard" isn't relevant to Simcloth. It was a tool for the old method of creating cloth, now replaced by Simcloth.

 

From your description I'm not sure which one you are doing.

 

First, have you done the "wave the flag" tutorial in "The Art of Animation:Master"? That shows how to create a material that turns a mesh into cloth.

[John Bigboote]

Cloth is tricky... in any program. For a table cloth you will first need to do a 'rest' solver action to get the cloth draped nicely over the table. Next, you will do the animation of the tablecloth animating from 'rest' to the pulloff action via a connected part of the cloth to a bone. Always with cloth is the element of density- as in mesh density... the finer the mesh the better the details (wrinkles etc.) you will need to experiment to find what density mesh will suit your needs.

 

I'll attach 2 variations of a TV spot I did back in 2005 when the feature was brand new.

AV_HalfOFF_test6SM.mov

AV_HalfOFF_SNOWtest_smaller.mov

[NancyGormezano]

EDIT: Here is link to a SIMCLOTH tutorial

 

and

 

here is another link to another Cloth tutorial

 

I would try the first link. I am not sure what the difference is between the 2 tutorials, as they were both done by Holmes Bryant.

 

You will have to download a zip file for both - which includes I believe, some sample projects along with a pdf

Edited July 15, 2015 by NancyGormezano

[Rodney]

Hi Holly,

 

Cloth will rely on a lot of different things but in my (little) experience with Simcloth it I've found that the simulating of cloth is the first step toward success; namely it gets you the keyframes (keyframes on every frame that is). The secret then is to identify those keyframes that you need to make the cloth animate correctly and then delete the remainder. THEN those (minimal) keyframes can be further adjusted (animated.... pose to pose or straight ahead) to maximum effect.

 

Added: In the attached (very simple!) simcloth test a simple lathed (circular) plane was dropped on a sphere to get the basic cloth shape; the shape chosen from just one or more of the 30 keyframes generated by the cloth simulation. The resulting model/cloth was then moved down onto the sphere (as if the sphere is now representing a character) and rotated to get the desired turning effect. Further refinement would be to animate the cloth with some follow through or drag, run the same simulation with more complex model or adjust the simulation settings.

Simcloth Animation.mov

[Rodney]

And of course... in case its worth mentioning... we probably shouldn't bother with texturing of our cloth until *after* the results meet our expectations.

Texturing and lighting are generally reserved for latter stage of production and Simcloth perfectly allows for that in our workflow.

Here's the same setup with the cloth textured and rerendered (no other changes in the project):

 

 

 

Disclaimer: Example only. Cloth this simple most likely doesn't need to be simulated in the first place.

Simcloth Animation Texture and Lighting.mov

[johnl3d]

Just noticed when I set the deflector subdivision in the material setting for the object to be hit to 16 instead of 4 the material showed 4 when I checked the material in the chor location for both the object to be hit and the ground even after save and reload

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

cloth1.zip

[Tara51]

Hello everyone,

 

robcat2075

Posted 15 July 2015 - 07:13 PM

"Cloth wizard" isn't relevant to Simcloth. It was a tool for the old method of creating cloth, now replaced by Simcloth.

 

From your description I'm not sure which one you are doing.

 

First, have you done the "wave the flag" tutorial in "The Art of Animation:Master"? That shows how to create a material that turns a mesh into cloth.

 

 

Yes. I tried it out and it worked fine, had no trouble with cloth on flag pole with wind force...

 

 

 

 

 

John Bigboote

Posted 15 July 2015 - 07:35 PM

Cloth is tricky... in any program. For a table cloth you will first need to do a 'rest' solver action to get the cloth draped nicely over the table. Next, you will do the animation of the tablecloth animating from 'rest' to the pulloff action via a connected part of the cloth to a bone. Always with cloth is the element of density- as in mesh density... the finer the mesh the better the details (wrinkles etc.) you will need to experiment to find what density mesh will suit your needs.

 

I'll attach 2 variations of a TV spot I did back in 2005 when the feature was brand new.

 

 

Yes but they were old versions, I noticed there are changing on simcloth in version 18.

 

 

 

 

 

NancyGormezano

Posted 15 July 2015 - 07:39 PM

EDIT: Here is link to a SIMCLOTH tutorial

 

and

 

here is another link to another Cloth tutorial

 

I would try the first link. I am not sure what the difference is between the 2 tutorials, as they were both done by Holmes Bryant.

 

You will have to download a zip file for both - which includes I believe, some sample projects along with a pdf

 

 

 

Thank you, Nancy. That's what I have been looking for. I will go through these two tutorials and see if I find any mistakes....

 

Right now I am looking for freewares (if any) so I can show you what I did. Screen capture video which you can edit and save...

 

 

 

Holly

[Fuchur]

Hi Holly, seems like there is something missing, right?

 

See you
*Fuchur*

[robcat2075]

holly, if you have further questions, let us know.

 

I'll note that Hypercam 2 is a free screen movie software.